Still thinking the younger Ted spoke hurriedly, “Listen dudes, Harrison must not discover what I’ve done, he’ll kill me if he does.” “Then don’t go back there,” said Ted promptly, expressing disgust for Harrison in absentia. “He’ll suspect me. Please you guys will do me a favor; occasionally when you guys are discussing let your dialogues seem as if you are still quarrelling with each other, especially after your return from Gyrus—those periods are when Harrison mostly spied at you. I’ll have your phone numbers; I’ll call you, especially when he’s ’bout to spy at you, so that you guys can start displaying as if you’re still quarrelling. Understood?” “Sure, that’s good idea,” they remarked satisfactorily. “Talk ill of the dean also, because Harrison had included in this powder the ingredient that’ll ensure your everlasting hatred for the dean too—jus’ take a look, those are the reddish peppery colored substances in here.” He showed them some reddish tiny substances in the powdery substances and continued, “So do as if you’re now quarrelling with the man. By so doing we’ll pull the wool over Harrison’s face.” “It’s alright,” Ted expressed and Henry advised, “Hey, young Ted, maybe you should leave now, or didn’t you say Harrison asked you to be back before he returns?” “You’re right,” the younger Ted replied as he headed for the door, which had been left ajar since their arrival to the room. “Bye,” they waved at him as he left the room. Shutting the door, the two friends looked into one another’s faces and were ashamed of themselves. “Well—it’s over now,” whispered Henry. “Yes, the mystery’s solved. We’re back into our ship of friendship.” “Yes, my elementary teacher would say, whenever she was uniting two erring friends, a mended broken friendship is like a remolded broken clay pot.” The boys clinched together in a blissful reunion but were soon divorced by the itches that had just come on their skins again. “Aouch!” they scratched their skins out of the hug. “Is it not ten minutes since we hurried out of the dean’s office?” Henry asked in confusion. “It should be,” agreed Ted, “This itches should have left us.” “Oh. It’s even almost two hours now.” Henry had just gazed at his wristwatch and found it out, but it seemed the two had forgotten how the younger Ted had put it. Their incessant itches were a result of Harrison’s continuous pouring of the substances on them since seven days ago. Harrison put down his mirror and fumed. “This guy is not afraid of me. What a betrayal!” Harrison had seen all that the younger Ted had performed. He never went anywhere when the younger Ted was leaving for Henry’s place. Harrison was suspecting that the younger Ted could betray him, so he had to lie to the boy that he was going out, but he had only gone to hide in the grasses in the little garden inside the compound, until the boy departed. Certain that the younger Ted had left, Harrison came back to his room, took up his mirror and began the spy at once. Harrison saw the boy right from the time he took a cab, the transport fares he paid and all he had whispered in soliloquy before getting to Henry and Ted in the campus. Harrison had been tempted to hurt him instantly before getting to the boys, having heard what the boy would do from the grumbles he had made while on his way, but he controlled his temper, preferring not to hurt him by himself, but through another person—Raul Paul, the dream-maker. Having sensed that Ted was near at hand, Harrison went into hiding again. As envisaged by Harrison, the younger Ted arrived with a smile, not noticing the trick Harrison, the Mystery Maker had put forward. He took out the mirror instantly and spoke to Henry and Ted with it. “Henry, Ted, you guys should begin to scratch your body again, Harrison is at the doorbell,” the younger Ted declared as the doorbell began to ring. “Ur-right,” the boys chorused and began to wriggle on the floor of Henry’s room where they had just adjourned to. “Good!” the younger Ted passed a remark, and then he went out to open the outer door for Harrison. “Oh, you’re back, I’ve done the job,” said Ted in pretence and Harrison replied in pretence too, “Yeah. It was quite a rough journey—from here to Georgia. But Steve treated me to a sumptuous meal over there. We had fun, lots of it. I spent most of my time bathing in his swimming pool. It was quite an adventure over there. Ted I regretted I never took you along—you’d have had a nice—” “Come see the fools,” Ted pulled Harrison’s arm fast, not interested in his long-winded shaggy-dog story, “I just poured the thorny substances on them again and they are writhing in pain on the floor, like earthworms in brackish-water.” “I’ll love to see such a sight,” Harrison said, goggle-eyed as he rushed ahead of Ted to his bedroom, where the mirror was situated. Harrison saw them on the floor, screaming and howling in pain as they scratched their skins in a haphazard manner. He guffawed loudly and the younger Ted joined him in it. All of a sudden, the two boys began to curl around each other’s body on the rugged floor of Henry’s room, shouting abuses at each other. “Henry, you’re a wicked fellow!” yelled Ted at Henry. “You caused the fight in Gyrus, causing this itches.” “I didn’t cause any itch, the Gyrus dust was responsible for it.” “Shut up! If you’d not cause the fight, the Gyrus dust hadn’t got stuck to our body. I hate you! I’ll hate you forever—and the foolish dean too.” “Ted, in fact I love Harrison more than you,” Henry commented too, in pretence. They could see Harrison and the younger Ted too, through Henry’s mirror which they’d intentionally hung, face down, on the ceiling. They were stealing some glances at it as they lay face-up on the floor. They felt that their finagling must have deceived Harrison, but they were making a great deal of mistakes. “It depends on who plays the tricks most,” thought Henry while still twisting on the floor, calling to mind one of Grandwala’s prophetic utterances. “Oh, Ted I’m glad,” Harrison said as he gave the younger Ted a friendly hug. “I’m gladder than you,” Ted replied, “They’ll scratch off their melanin and turn albinos so soon,” Ted made fun and the two watchers burst into laughter as Harrison took the mirror to keep it in his wardrobe. Well into dusk, the boys woke from sleep. They had just recovered from the effect of the unconsciousness brought about by the somnolence they had long fallen into. Henry and Ted, in order to end Harrison’s spy that day, had pretentiously remained on the floor as if dead or asleep, but they were not aware of the arrival of the real sleeps, which had kidnapped them for almost five hours. “Huph!” Henry yawned as he rose to his feet, “Sleepy-head get up,” clapped Henry at Ted, who was partially awake too. “Pull me up,” demanded Ted and Henry gave him a hand. They were shocked when they realized how much hours of sleep they had gone into. “Slept for five hours during the day,” Ted said staring at a golden yellow wall clock right ahead of him, but hung up on the wall. “Wonderful! Ted it’s my only sound sleep since becoming a Gyrus citizen,” Henry said in a genuine manner, “I’ve not had up to three hour sleep since then.” “Really!” Ted was shocked, though not doubting his friend. “Yeah, really.” Henry remembered Susie at once. “Oh, Ted we’ve got to go meet Susie and apologize to her.” “How?” Ted asked, “I mean what are we going to tell her?” “Don’t you worry, just let’s go. The inspiration will come readily.” Ted shrugged and went with Henry at that instance, believing that Henry’s adeptness must have covered lie fabrication too. Believing that they were not under surveillance at that moment by Harrison, the two held each other’s arms and took a walk to Susie’s place. Susie was on her sofa, weeping incessantly into her cushion, teddy bear staring blankly at her with no trace of emotional expression on its face. She was sick. “Let’s look through the keyhole first,” Henry advised and Ted poked his eyes into it at once. “Henry,’ whispered Ted, “She’s weeping.” “Let me see,” Henry nudged Ted on the right part of his waist. He stepped forward, looked through the vantage point and was able to see Susie clearly too. “Who are there?” a faint voice sounded from the interior and the boys were frozen with fright, shocked by her ability to detect their inaudible sounds. “She saw us,” the boys lip-synched, not uttering out any sound at all, “Let’s push the doorbell.”
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 11:31:25 +0000
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